Baby Beth Puckerman
by SimplexityJane
Summary: Babies don't care about the clothes you wear or the car you drive. That's an adult thing.


**Um, I can explain? I always hated that Puck wanted badly to be a father and couldn't (yes, I know he was a sophomore and babies ruin tv shows and I get it, but really), so I put some plot bunnies together and made a universe out of it. In the universe Quinn does die shortly after giving birth due to complications (canon she's high risk for a load of diseases including diabetes and preeclampsia) and Puck raises Beth on his own. For some reason Beth really loves Kurt and Kurt thinks she's adorable even if she's a poop machine.**

A fact that people sometimes forget is that babies don't care where they live or if the clothes in the closet are from Target or Macy's. They don't think it's important to present a certain image to the world because of obscure social traditions, or that being different makes someone a target for abuse.

Babies don't hate (despite what new parents might think at 2 a.m.), they don't give in to peer pressure, and they don't know whether something could be 'better.' Those are adult problems.

Beth Puckerman doesn't know that her Daddy isn't what you'd call responsible. He loves her, and is there every day, and rocks her to sleep singing Johnny Cash and Billy Joel. She doesn't know Gramma is a nurse, just that she smells clean at familiar at night when Daddy goes to work.

She does know Sarah is the best, even if she's loud. Sarah feeds her a lot.

She likes Santana- and no one who knows Santana would say she's motherly. Brittany sings to her and says she shines. Mercedes holds her and smells like baby powder, even when she's crying. Kurt has the best clothes for sleeping on.

(Okay, she does prefer Dolce as a pillow. Kurt has a special smell, and he always wears outfits over there that double as blankets.)

_He's_ her favorite person other than Daddy. He makes funny faces that even Daddy can't copy, and when he sings- well, when Beth grows up she won't believe in angels but Pop is as close to a celestial being as you can get. He sounds like magic, Brittany informs her. Kurt blushes helplessly, not knowing Beth absorbs this all.

The only time Kurt was upset Beth held out her arms and let him cry on her. Daddy was smart (for once) and pulled them on the bed, him holding Kurt holding her.

("That's good, they've got their pieces back," Brittany says, even though none of them knows yet what she means.)

Beth wants that to happen without the crying first, but now Daddy's mad and Kurt doesn't come over so Beth wails. Daddy agrees with her, but Kurt's somewhere else and isn't here so it doesn't change anything. She still screams.

He comes back, but Beth is really mad at him so she just sniffs and shakes her head when he tries to pick her up. After a minute she decides to forgive him and it turns out he's still soft.

Beth learns the tricky thing called walking and proceeds to promptly try out running.

... This doesn't go well.

Three stitches later and Daddy gets her what amounts to a cage. Kurt laughs at her when she glares at them. She doesn't care except that he's there every day again. Daddy looks at him a lot, all soft and sweet ("Sappy," Sarah calls it.), and it's just a matter of time.

One day Daddy picks her up and very seriously asks if Beth loves Kurt. Beth, because she's copying everything and has a scary memory for words already, giggles, "Yes!"

"Well, it's better than Kirstie Alley got," Daddy sighs.

The next time he's over Kurt and Daddy are acting weird, but they're grownups. Beth's starting to understand there's something about grownups that are different from her. Gramma's all wrinkled and Daddy yells sometimes, and Beth doesn't know it but a year from now Daddy's going to New York and culinary school. Kurt will use her as inspiration for a line of baby clothing that manages to keep them in an apartment until Daddy really gets noticed.

She doesn't know that a week from now she'll meet her first love, an old battered motorcycle that Uncle Sam fixes up to get over Blaine (Brittany says Sam loves Mercedes but doesn't know that yet). She'll watch as he and Daddy build her and name her Quinn while Pop looks on with a smirk.

When Pop gets a job in Philadelphia he and Daddy argue for a week about Beth, but she thinks it's awesome. They needed a house anyway, the apartment was too small.

When she's eight Aunt Santana will tell Puck she wants his kid because Beth is cute and-

"Alright, but make Britt an honest woman first."

Which will lead to five dollars in the swear jar and lots of money going to a wedding band, because Daddy isn't a girl or coward or anything.

There will be lots of tears, and public indecency, and a wedding crazier than any 'reality' tv.

Beth _will_ feel inferior to her mother's memory, but Dad _won't_ let her wallow. When she's thirteen Dad'll get his own restaurant and staff to terrorize.

She won't be surprised when the producer offers him a show.

(Well she will. But only a little.)

She'll do a thousand things and then a thousand more (punching an idiot for calling her a name, running away for a week and coming home with a tattoo and a bike, drinking half a bottle of tequila to prove she can, meeting the person of her dreams and promptly making an ass of herself- a family trait, she'll be assured). She'll get married and spend way too much time on motorcycles, her face will be recognizable and her children will never worry about their next meal or where they'll live.

But for now the adults can worry about all that. Beth just enjoys being a baby.


End file.
